


every time you say that you do (i just can't believe you)

by lunesdemiel



Series: never seen a hero like me in a sci-fi [1]
Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Action & Romance, Angst, Bodyguard Romance, Cyberpunk, M/M, Not Beta Read, Psychic Abilities, Robots, Science Fiction, Sexual Tension, Strangers to Lovers, Weapons, these tags are a disaster
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:16:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27654682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunesdemiel/pseuds/lunesdemiel
Summary: It's a far-flung future, and Soobin is sadly a very important man. What kind of important person would he be, without a bodyguard?
Relationships: Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun
Series: never seen a hero like me in a sci-fi [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2022055
Kudos: 22





	1. cotton candy pink

**Author's Note:**

> saw a tweet of the VR concept photos for Blue Hour that said something along the lines of "two princes meet two assassins", cried a bit, and started writing. still working on having an actual plot tho,,,,,,,
> 
> the rest of the boys will show up over the next few chapters, once i finalize their characters.
> 
> title is a lyric from "Flaws" by Alex Lustig & Ayelle.
> 
> see the end notes for worldbuilding and author notes

Like many bittersweet things, it begins with a fight.

Or, as Soobin had euphemised, an asymmetric combat simulation in confined space. Which just meant that Yeonjun would be chasing Soobin down in his labyrinthine home, trying to close the distance while being pelted with arrows.

The two met in that most cliché and antiquated of places—the café. Not that it was some chance, love at first sight kind of meeting; Beomgyu arranged it after the fourth attempt on Soobin's boring but unfortunately very important life as heir presumptive to the nation's military-industrial complex. Beomgyu doesn't doubt his brother's ability to hold onto life by a thread, but a little insurance can't hurt—especially when it comes in such a cute package.

At the end of that fateful day, Soobin decided that he'd conduct, in his own words, a more formal interview with Yeonjun later that week. That brings us back to the Choi estate, whose repair protocols are trying desperately to keep up with loosed bolts of coalesced steel and the deep slashes of a diamond-tipped spear.

Soobin rationalized it like this: he hasn't needed a personal bodyguard, because he's been able to best the last few attacks just fine on his own. For Yeonjun to be worth the time (and pay), he should at least be able to keep up with his employer.

Though, Soobin wouldn't mind keeping the elder around just to look at. He's surprised someone so pretty would go into such an ugly business.

He doesn't have much time to ponder it, turning a corner through an archway and backpedaling to the middle of the foyer. The twin staircases, adorned with red and purple flowers, flank him on either side. Strange to think that they'd gone up those stairs so amicably just an hour ago.

Footsteps echo out of the passage, and Soobin smirks. He's created enough distance to line up a clear shot, and limited his opponent's options; Soobin is aiming directly at the shortest path to him, and the other entrances into the foyer are both further away and in his line of sight. If Yeonjun takes a detour, Soobin will have enough time to take at least three shots before the prospective bodyguard gets into stabbing distance—and he trusts that one shot will be enough.

It's a shame, really; he actually likes Yeonjun. The man is full of contradictions: a pink-haired mercenary with a playful personality and a long list of repeat clients. Most of the people Soobin talked to this week were comparatively one-dimensional. Maybe he can find some other way to fit Yeonjun into his schedule. A security consultant? Sparring partner? God knows he doesn't have time for friends unless it moves the business forward.

He flourishes his fingers, and a surge of metal moves to fill the space between them. He's been using similar nanotechnology for years, but he'll never get used to having a bow and arrow literally at his fingertips. It'd might as well be magic.

He pulls the gleaming bowstring back with a practiced breath, setting his eyes on the archway. The steps get louder—and stop.

A pillow arcs through the air and lands unceremoniously a meter in front of Soobin, who just scoffs.

"It was worth a shot."

Soobin sees a blur of cotton candy pink and releases the arrow, which embeds itself in the wall Yeonjun was just in front of. He feels the bow get knocked out of his grasp. His breath catches in his throat. There's a glint of diamond on his right.

Yeonjun is using a polearm. Polearms are unwieldy up close. Get up close.

Soobin ducks, flourishes his fingers, and lunges.

The two stand frozen in that moment, a hair's breadth away from taking each other's life. Soobin's hand holds a half-formed arrow up to Yeonjun's throat. Yeonjun points his spear down to Soobin's heart. It'd make a nice statue.

They both pull back and watch as the adrenaline fades away. There's something captivating about that moment, where you can see the humanity return to someone's eyes.

Yeonjun is the first to break the silence. "So, how'd I do?" He runs his free hand through his hair, looking at Soobin like a dog who just did a trick.

Soobin's smile is short-lived, noticing the line of red blooming on the other's cheek. "Your face. That shot grazed you."

Yeonjun touches the pads of his fingers to the wound and hums. "Didn't even notice. Though, I thought you said you weren't actually trying to kill me."

The smirk on his face disappears as Soobin walks up and presses the half-arrow into his chest. It distorts like putty on contact, until his palm is flush against the elder. Soobin tries not to think about the firm muscle beneath. "I wasn't; they melt on hit. Can't say the same for your spear, hm?"

And it's back, with a wink too. God. "Glad you trusted me to not impale you." The _though I'd love to try_ goes unspoken. Soobin hopes Yeonjun can't see him mentally collecting himself. Years of corporate negotiations and practiced interrogations didn't prepare him for this.

When Beomgyu said he should loosen up, is this what he meant?

Soobin pulls his hand away like it's been burnt, and the mask comes back on. "You're hired. Come to the kitchen, we'll do the paperwork there." He gives his most professional smile.

Yeonjun's head tilts to the side. "Paperwork? Isn't that a little old-fashioned?"

"Mhm. It feels more serious though, signing a physical contract rather than scanning your fingerprint." He bends to pick up his bow, which dissolves at his touch, and stands back up as the last of the metal trickles up his sleeve. "I'm blue blood, we're suckers for tradition."

"Then am I your knight in shining armour?" They aren't facing each other, but the grin is audible. Soobin makes his way to the stairs because he knows he can't help but mirror it.

"If it helps you sleep at night. Seriously, come. I'll make you food after."

At that, Yeonjun is rushing to keep up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- this society is a technocracy, meaning that its decision-makers are those with the greatest relevant expertise, rather than majority-elected officials. with the advantages of both tremendous wealth and burgeoning developments in human germline modification, houses of "nobles" have emerged, holding their positions in government over generations by ensuring their technical superiority. one such group is House Choi, under which Soobin and Beomgyu were born; their family has historically held positions in security and defense.  
> note the use of human germline modification, which some houses believe will allow them to build smarter, stronger descendants and thus ensure their continued dominance. the science isn't quite there yet, but they have figured out aesthetic modifications: the nobility have a characteristic, almost inhuman beauty, and seem to age better too.  
> \- why no guns?  
> in universe: partly because they've been made very hard to obtain—an intentional move by nobles like House Choi, who have their hands in the manufacture and regulation of weaponry. partly because other technologies are capable of getting to the same endpoints with less mess.  
> out of universe: because i'm running with the D&D, MMORPG kind of concept in the VR photos, what with the members having character classes and stats and stuff.  
> \- "repair protocols" is another nod to House Choi's use of nanotechnology—the walls literally fix themselves.  
> \- "polearms are unwieldy up close" is not really true? if the user is inexperienced this can be a problem, and getting up close lets you grapple the weapon, but if you aren't quick your opponent can just. pull back the pointy end and stab you.


	2. cute animals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dreamers accidentally run into each other, with... decidedly different priorities.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first section was loosely inspired by "The Dream Thief", a short story written by Matt Dunn for League of Legends.  
> oh also, if you read the previous chapter prior to December 3rd, I basically rewrote the last 300-ish words because it kinda sucked lmao. so go check that out if you care

Kai is in a dream, but it is not his own. He knows this because he dreams of cute animals. He dreams of gummy candies and white feathered wings in a house built of Lego blocks, where he has no obligations except the ones he sets for himself.

This dream is tense. There are the growls of a tiger, the heavy breaths of its prey, a fear that humanity tried to leave in the era of gods and monsters. And there are so many flowers, crimson red and the purple of a dying sunset—

The dream hardens, crystallizes like glass, and Kai is lying on wet concrete between brick walls. He stares up at a night sky filled with clouds and perpetual rainfall, the kind of sky typical of noir films and gritty superhero stories. The water pelts his face. It kind of tickles.

Kai sits up, because it seems like he's gonna be here for a while and he'd might as well make a friend. The dirty water has already soaked through his sweater in grey patches. Still gross, even if he knows it's not real.

He steps out of his little alleyway into a surprisingly not empty street. The streetlights glow dismally onto the pavement, and out of the rainfall he can make out cars passing by. There's even a few people on the sidewalk, their faces variably obscured by umbrellas and raincoats.

Which is a problem, because dreams usually aren't much larger than what the dreamer can see.

So where are they?

He runs up to the nearest person, further dampening the hems of his pants. He tugs them back by the shoulder. A faceless head stares back, and once Kai's grip loosens, they go on their way without a word.

This repeats a few times until he's harassed every non-person in sight. He tries the doors to the buildings lining the street. All locked, and of course they are—no point rendering spaces you won't see.

But he's still in this street, so the dreamer must be here. He looks up at the sky on the off-chance that they're flying or something. No luck.

Then he notices a flicker of movement just at the edge of his vision. On the... roof?

On the roof. Of course he's in a rooftop chase scene.

Kai runs over to the building where he thinks he saw something going on, and sure enough, it has those cruddy metal stairs on the side that go up to the roof. He starts climbing, wishing he could just fly up like in his own dreams. Instead, his legs are burning. Why the hell is this building so tall?

About halfway up he hears it again—that growling. His steps falter on instinct. He's died in other people's dreams before; it's never a good time, because his brain still forces itself to imagine what those final moments are like before he gets pulled back into the real world. Being mauled by a tiger definitely doesn't sound like a _fun_ way to go.

Still, his curiosity gets the best of him, and the growling seemed distant. He picks up the pace once again, and soon enough he's climbing a rusty ladder to the roof. His head peeks up over the top to... nothing. He sighs and hauls himself up, gravel crunching beneath his feet as he stands.

A roar. He whips around and sees, on the building behind the one he just climbed, a white tiger. It circles a man dressed in a hooded black coat, trying to back away from the animal. Kai thinks he can see a face, and blonde hair peeking out to boot. This must be him. The dreamer. And he won't be able to talk to the guy if he gets killed, because then the dream is over. Who knows if they'll see each other again?

Kai cups his hands around his mouth, takes a deep breath, and yells.

The rain stalls in the air. The man is frozen mid-step. He was never the dreamer, just its subject.

It is the tiger, who has turned to meet his gaze.

As the dream melts away, shatters like glass, Kai hears those same growls and whimpers, feels that old fear, sees the flowers rush around him like blood and ink. And just before his head breaks the surface of the water, he hears a man whisper in his ear.

"Leave."

Beomgyu's eyes flutter open, and the first coherent thought he has is one of irritation. He turns to the bedside table, where the clock taunts him with a flashing 6:05 AM, and groans. Way to end his trip on a sour note.

It's not like he actually wants to kill Taehyun, despite whatever his subconscious wants to say—there's simply no reason to unless his proximity to Soobin becomes an issue—but he would have liked to see where the dream was going.

But that's besides the point, because the kid he was keeping an eye on just the other day walked into his mind like the door was unlocked. He kicked him out without a struggle, but that just tells him that the kid doesn't really know what he's doing yet. If he were trained...

Kai, was it? Beomgyu makes a mental note to visit him later this week before his thoughts drift elsewhere.

His grandparents were, with all due respect, stupid to support the Relay project. The Houses promised an unprecedented era of human interconnectivity, literally uprooted half the country to set up a couple dozen neural routers, and where did that get anyone? The network lies half dead three kilometres underground, too weak for the vast majority of people to mentally send anything more meaningful than vibes. So useless that the last generation readily forgot its existence, because it does nothing that can't be accomplished by literally reading body language.

And that small minority? Has an assortment of, for lack of a better term, psychic powers. No telekinesis as far as he knows, though it honestly wouldn't complicate his job much. Between domestic counterintelligence, keeping Soobin alive, and monitoring a handful of high-risk telepaths, someone moving things with their brain would be a nice change of pace.

Speaking of Soobin, he had that date with Yeonjun yesterday. Beomgyu slides his hand under the pillow for his phone, squints at the too-high screen brightness, and sighs at the lack of messages. He'll just ask when he gets home tonight.

The growling in his stomach interrupts his train of thought. Speculating about his brother's taste in men can wait until _after_ breakfast—and the hotel buffet opens in half an hour. He throws the covers aside, and the rest comes mechanically: bathroom, wash hands, slap on sunscreen, slip into the outfit he prepared last night. He's adjusting his bucket hat in the mirror when a purring comes from the other side of the nearly closed door.

"Come in." The door nudges open to a mechanical tiger, blinking at him slowly. Beomgyu smiles reflexively and moves to pet the top of its head. It leans into the touch.

"I'm going for a walk, and then getting food; we're off to the airport when I come back. You'll watch my stuff while I'm gone?" Another purr. Beomgyu steps out of the bathroom and around the cat to grab his coat, then walks up to the front door. He takes one last look at the room, lingering just long enough to see the metal animal curl up on the bed, and he's gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Beomgyu could be described as House Choi's sword and shield, working to secure the prosperity of his family by any means necessary. once Soobin moves from heir to master, Beomgyu will become his invisible hand, moving (and striking) where his brother cannot.  
> \- i constructed the whole Relay thing because, again, I'm trying to find ways to integrate the whole character class thing going on the VR set. Beomgyu's secondary class is Mentalist (a homebrew D&D class with psionic abilities) and Kai's primary is Mystic (an official psionic class that was introduced in D&D 5e and then dropped for being OP). trying to translate that difference into the narrative lol  
> \- among the people who know about the whole psychic thing, those gifted few are colloquially called "Relay runners".


End file.
